h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Scally, meaning Scallywag, is in fact an old liverpool term used to describe local men who were thieves, rogues and scoundrels. The term dates back to well before the 1980's when football fans on Merseyside started wearing shell suits. A scally, simply put, is a bad Scouser. A Scally is a burgular, a cheat or a drug dealer. A scally cannot be indentified by the way they dress. This is a misconception. The whole shellsuit/tracksuit thing stems from the football terraces of the 1980's and another group of young people known as 'Casuals'. Towards the end of the 80's, Liverpool Casuals wore expensive tracksuits and trainers. This is still the fashion followed by many young people on Merseyside today.

However, other groups of young people - Goths, Nu Metal fans, Skaters etc have all wrongly started refering to their tracksuit wearing counterparts as 'Scallies'. These so called 'Scallies' wrongly refer to all none 'tracky' wearing young people as 'Goths'. The word 'Scally' has since lost it's original meaning and this guide entry simply reinforces a set of misguided stereotypes.

Might I suggest that a simple language evolution may've taken place over the course of 20 years? Throughout the majority of people I'm sure the term is generally understood to mean that which this Article discusses. Burglars and the like are called criminals, regardless of their location.

I do not disagree that the term 'Scally' has adopted an entirely different meaning from the original but I still feel strongly about the misuse of the term. There are many words, phrases and sayings which originated in the different regional dialects that have lost their true meaning. This is more a case of language distillation than evolution. Language is a wonderful, creative thing. It should be free and fluid. If it remains static, it becomes dry and boring. Simply grafting a new meaning onto an old word, as opposed to inventing a new one only adds to this.

What's more, to misappropriate a word and then apply it to such a diverse collection of young people is insulting. My biggest problem with the misuse of the term 'Scally' is - it still retains some of the original meaning. Most of the postings for this article refer to Scallies as being criminal in some way. Instead of being a derogatory term once used to describe a small group of people who commit criminal acts, it now suggests a massive group of young people who wear sports wear are somehow criminals. Therein lays the problem. Words and phrases which develop as part of a regional dialect tend to have very specific applications. They are part of a common language understood by everyone. Often when they transcend that region, new meanings are added and they become little more than bland stereotypes.

'Burglars and the like are called criminals, regardless of their location'. That's a very odd statement. Burglars ARE criminals, but to suggest that people refer to them by this term in everyday language just doesn't work. There are numerous words and phrases which people use to describe criminals. Many of them can be found in the dictionary, others are part of regional dialects. These are used far more frequently in normal conversation than the term criminal. The reason being - criminal is such a 'Blanket' term that covers a wide range of people. Most people tend to use language which is much more descriptive and colorful. People use words that evoke feelings and images which better communicate what they mean. Where I live, 'Scally' is just one of those words.